Some eats of late (and not so late)

Yes, I’ve done it again. It seems my posts are running on somewhat of a bi-monthly schedule at the moment, even with the best of intentions. Shout out to those of you who are still here reading, thanks for sticking around!

Today is just a jumble of recent and not so recent eats…photos that have been sitting unlabelled (‘cos I like to test my memory) on my lappy, waiting for their time to shine.

cupcakecentral1

First up – some sweet treats from Cupcake Central. The Bear sat in on a seminar through his uni with the lady who started Cupcake Central as a guest speaker. He came home raving about what an entrepreneur she is, and so I felt particularly inclined to taste some of her goods, having been aware that they offer vegan options.

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Cupcake Central run one or two vegan flavours per day, as well as a GF option. You can check their baking schedule online and look up which flavours will feature on each day. These also change seasonally so you will never get tired of eating the cupcakes (as if you ever would, eye roll). These were chocolate peanut butter bad boys, and they were freakin’ tasty.

WARNING: The rest of the photos in this post will be from my on it’s last legs phone’s camera, as I do not frequently have my camera with me. Apologies for quality, but I want to share the eats with you anyway, ’cause that’s what it’s all about.

powerplant
This is Power Plant Cafe’s avocado on toast with lemon, coriander, chili, tomatoes and walnut and truffle spread. It is highly recommended. The presentation was on point and while at first I was worried that there wasn’t going to be enough avo to cover my two delicious pieces of toast, I needn’t have worried. I try to avoid avo on toast when I go to places where I have lots of options, but I couldn’t look past it with the twist of walnut truffle spread. Just too good. I also had a coffee, a strawberry milkshake, and a raw PB cup.  Not to mention our table got some chips to share – the chips here are on form – covered in smoked paprika and with a thick and creamy aioli, though unfortunately the milkshake was far too sweet for me.

This was my second visit to Power Plant, the first I enjoyed an equally well presented and delicious macro bowl and took some cupcakes home with me. The menu is fairly small but I’m keen to work my way through it. The cafe itself is light, spacious and calm, with two outdoor sitting areas for those sunny days.

theglassden

My housemate and I finally checked out the Glass Den after rave reviews. We were not disappointed. I got the breakfast soba noodle salad with polenta crumbed mushrooms, pine nuts, smoked coconut, kale sesame crumble and a side of almond feta. I kid you not, this was so good that a lady from another table came over and asked what I was eating. “I’ll have what she’s having”

I’m so keen to go back and try the Tiramisu Hotcakes I’ve been seeing pop up all over Instagram. I’m not usually a sweet breakfast kind of girl when I’m eating out, but I need to have them…they are a work of art.

beangreencafe
We were heading past the Prahran Market a while back and I was ravenous, so we stopped at Beangreen Cafe for a quick bite. I got some chickpea fritters, three salads and some hummus. Everything at Beangreen is super reasonable in price – I think I paid around $9 for this plate. Simple, wholesome and tasty.

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The Bear got this giant cookie – we can’t remember now what it was. I want to say it was ginger, the Bear thinks it may have been macadamia.

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A colleague and I recently popped up around the corner to the relatively newly opened Neko Neko near the corner of Gertrude and Smith streets. I ordered the Agedashi tofu. This delicious plate of red rice and various veggies and pickles is just what comes with most of the main dishes. AMAZING. How did they know I love lots of little individual piles of things to enjoy?!

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This is the Agedashi tofu itself. Full of little goodies like pepitas and hemp seeds (I think? I can’t remember now – am just assuming from the picture).

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My colleague and I shared the tofu as well as this raw okonomiyaki. Now this didn’t have a huge resemblance to the traditional okonomiyaki, but it was certainly delicious – dense and creamy. It came with it’s own little piles of veggies and some miso eggplant macadamia sushi. At $18, it’s more than I’d usually spend on a work day lunch, but we wanted to treat ourselves and we felt we got our money’s worth with these delightfully presented, healthy meals. They do have sushi rolls and mini bento boxes ready to go if you prefer a cheaper and faster lunch – I will be back to investigate this further.

donuttime
And last, but not least – my housemates surprised me by splitting two vegan donuts from Doughnut Time – one was chocolate with strawberries and pistachios on top, and the other was matcha. The latter was my favourite, while it didn’t taste particularly strongly of matcha, I enjoyed the tanginess of what I assume is freeze-dried raspberry on top. Delicious.

Cupcake Central
7/672 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn
Mon – Fri – 7.30am – 6.30pm
Sat – 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sun – CLOSED
(Check other locations for their hours)

Power Plant Cafe
2-6 Swilk St, Templestowe
Mon & Tues – CLOSED
Wed – Sun – 8am – 3.30pm

The Glass Den
15 Urquhart St, Coburg
Open 7 days, 8am – 4pm

Beangreen Vegetarian Cafe
Prahran Market
163 Commercial Rd, Sth Yarra
Mon & Wed – CLOSED
Tues & Thurs – 7am – 5pm
Fri – 7am – 6pm
Sat – 7am – 5pm
Sun – 10am – 3pm
CASH ONLY

Neko Neko83 Smith St, Fitzroy
Mon – Fri – 12pm – 3pm & 5.30pm – 10pm
Sat – 5.30 – 10pm
Sun – CLOSED

Doughnut Time
5 Degraves St, Melbourne
Mon – Fri – 7am – 11pm
Sat – Sun – 8am – 11pm
And various locations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast (check each for opening hours)

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I’m back! V Series Kew, Fritz Gelato and Gelato Messina

Oh hello (queue tumbleweed)

That seems as good a way as any to start the post after the impromptu hiatus I have been on. It was never intended, but after having a post-MoFo breather, a couple of short holidays and just general life happenings, suddenly it is three months later. And helllloooo 2016.

To be honest, I also lost a bit of my blogging enthusiasm. It’s not that I’ve got nothing to post, on the contrary there’s still recipes that I didn’t get around to posting during MoFo as well as a million other eateries. Yes, a million. But the longer I went without posting, the harder it seemed to make the time to sit down and come back to it. I’ve also been battling with technology a bit – I’m no photo editing pro – I just make it up as I go. However I’ve had some photos that I wanted to share that got drowned in a coloured light and I’ve been trying, failing, cussing at my computer and trying again to fix them but I’m just not getting anywhere. Unfortunately these photos, chronologically speaking, should be posted first as they were from my trip to Perth back in October, but as I haven’t been able to get them right I’ve just been really stuck instead of moving on and coming back to it later. Anyway, I’ve finally moved on and I’ll come back and tinker with them and hopefully share them with you all later. At least I’m back tap tap tapping away at these here keys again – it’s a start.

So today I’m going to share a bit of a riff-raff account of a few things that I have eaten around the place. Starting with an impromptu brekkie at V Series in Kew the other day.

V Series is the evolution of A Caterpillar’s Dream (which I visited once previously) – the place has had a makeover with some noticeable improvements on decor and dining ware. I particularly liked the little pots of fresh herbs decorating the tables. The menu we were given on the day had a breakfast page, drinks page as well as a 3-course lunch deal with a selection of dishes to choose from, however this differs to that available on their website where it appears you can order an individual item from the lunch menu and there are more items on offer.

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The bear and I both ordered the same dish – the crispy tofu benedict, although he added an optional egg to his. I had not been feeling particularly hungry before spontaneously deciding to stop by for breakfast, so I probably could have done with just one of these stacks. That’s not to say I didn’t finish them both of course…

I was pleased with the generous amounts of mushroom, spinach and avocado layered atop the english muffins, the crispiness of the tofu was also satisfying although most likely deep fried. I appreciated the effort of the hollandaise but this was not quite on point – it tasted too sweet and heavily reliant on mustard for flavour, I had to add plenty of salt and pepper to combat the sweetness. If V Series could perfect the sauce it would take this to the next level.

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I also ordered an iced coffee to share because you know, iced coffee is delicious, albeit filling alongside the massive brekkie.

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As if we could walk out without taking some cupcakes from the cabinet – all of which are vegan. After far too much deliberation, we selected the classic cheesecake and the salted caramel cupcakes. Both were delicious – I’m a sucker for cheesecake so this went down well, but the salted caramel sauce and toffee flake were also impressive. I’m pleased with the evolution of V Series, and will definitely be back again, particularly after realising that our energy company had sent out a card giving discounts at certain eateries with V Series included. Excellent.

I was on Bridge Road recently on a hot summer’s day and stopped in to Fritz Gelato. Fritz have a sign on the wall indicating that all their sorbets are vegan.

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The entire bottom row here, aside from the yoghurt flavour on the far left, are sorbets. Unfortunately I forgot to actually get a photo of the gelato I ordered, but I got strawberry and bounty – delicious!

Speaking of gelato, I stopped by Gelato Messina on Smith Street a while back and was pleased to find this vegan coffee sorbet with hazelnut praline, which I paired with the classic chocolate sorbet. I need to go back and see if they are still serving it, as this was divine – the crunchy praline just made it next level goodness.

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When I started this post, I thought I would share some Smith & Deli treats I have enjoyed, but after sifting through my photos I think there is enough for a post of it’s own so I will just end this now before I have any more reasons to put this post off. Yeeehah!

V Series
Shop 4/26 Princess St, Kew
Mon – Fri – 8am – 4.30pm
Sat – Sun – 9am – 4.30pm

Fritz Gelato
334 Bridge Rd, Richmond
Open 7 days – noon until late

Gelato Messina
237 Smith St, Fitzroy
Sun – Thurs – 12pm – 11pm
Fri – Sat – 12pm – 11.30pm

Smith & Deli, Fitzroy

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the hot new place in town – vegans and non-vegans alike are buzzing with the news. Yep, those awesome folk over at Smith & Daughters have opened up their own deli, just around the corner on Moor St, aptly named Smith & Deli and stocking everything you could possibly need, from sandwiches to salads, premade pizzas to hot soup, coffees to herbs and spices. I’m yet to step inside yet, but Faye at Veganopoulous and Cindy and Michael at Where’s the Beef? have taken some great photos of the snazzy interior.

While I have not had the opportunity to visit them in person as of yet, I am lucky enough that my bear had a free day and offered to pop by Smith & Deli and meet me on my lunch break with some (read: LOTS) of their goods to share. You can imagine my excitement when I was greeted with this:

smithdeli1At first the bear apologised for getting all “his type” of foods, but I was pretty sure any food from Smith & Deli was going to be my type of food so I was not too worried.

smithdeli3First up, we split a “Rubenstein” sandwich – pastrami, sauerkraut, pickles and Russian dressing on rye bread. This is my second reuben style sandwich ever, and I’m loving them more with each try. Everything about this was perfect, from the thickness of the bread to the tanginess of the generous filling.

smithdeli2Next up, the kim chi and cheese scroll. Are you kidding me?!

smithdeli4Seriously. So de-freaking-licious I can’t even. The bread was so soft and while I thought the kim chi might be a bit too mild in amongst all the dough, it had an excellent kick.

smithdeli5Our last savoury course consisted of a steak and curry pie. This probably wouldn’t have been my first pick, though at the same time I want to eat EVERYTHING on offer, so how could I not be happy with this?

smithdeli7At first we were not blown away by the pie, as we were still coming down off the awesomeness of the last two things. It’s a steak and curry pie. However the more we ate into it, the more we realised that it was a bloody good pie – if we hadn’t already stuffed ourselves with goods beforehand, we probably would have rated it higher to begin with. The pastry was good, there was a strong curry flavour and a generous amount of melt-in-your-mouth ‘steak’ interspersed with chunks of vegetables. Nothing to scoff at!

smithdeli8Oh you thought it was over? Nohohohohooo.

As if there wouldn’t be sweets! Bear brought this doughnut – I’m not actually sure what it was and neither was he – he said he was so overwhelmed he just pointed at things. It had kind of brownie chunks on top? Sweet, delicious, and almost enough to tip us over the edge.

We had to go for an ambulate so we didn’t go into a food coma. While walking, the bear (after previously professing his love for Smith & Daughters by declaring we must eat there weekly) announced that this was his new place, and he was “a deli boy” now. Fine by me. I have a whole deli of treats to work my way through!

Smith & Deli
111 Moor St, Fitzroy
Tues – Sat – 8am – 7pm

Vegie Bar and Three One 2 One

Walking up and down Brunswick street always gets my tummy rumbling. I recently popped into Vegie Bar with my mum for a quick snack in between some seriously successful browsing.

vegbar2“This is not the time for dumplings” said nobody ever. Quite thick skins on these ones, I can’t remember what the filling was made of, it wasn’t remarkably tasty but nothing a good dunking of sauce cant fix.

vegbar3Along the same vein, I will never pass on wontons. I really liked the broth these were in – gingery, garlicky with some fresh coriander…heavenly match.

vegbar1To top it off, I had a matcha milkshake. I have not forayed very far into the world of matcha, so the taste is quite unusual to me still. I did enjoy this, but perhaps not quite what I was craving at the time (read: ice coffee).

This next visit goes back some time. As in possibly last year. Three One 2 One is a little cafe on Bridge road in Richmond, with a funky rhino on the side of the wall.

threeone2one2Upon first glance at the menu, it is not super vegan friendly. There are plenty of cheesy and eggy vegetarian options, though nothing strikes my eye. The lunch menu is mostly paninis and sandwiches, and after asking the waitress, she pointed a few things that they could alter for me. I went with the pumpkin and gruere sandwich with candied walnuts, caramelised onion and rocket (minus the gruere), which came with a side of “chubby chips”.

threeone2oneThe chips were yum! The sandwich was a little strange – the candied walnuts making for a very sweet addition. I found them quite hard little nuggets in the sandwich, providing an almost tooth breaking crunch. With pumpkin not being my top choice of vegetables to put in a sandwich, this didn’t really impress. I did however enjoy the experience and the service, which led me to go back two more times since then, however unfortunately it just hasn’t quite cut it on the follow up visits. Once for brekkie I had quite a plain avo on toast, and the next time I tried to customise my own vegan sandwich, and despite the girl acknowledging and trying to advise what I could eat (though appearing confused at what vegan actually means), my sandwich came out with mayonnaise and most likely butter-cooked mushrooms. Despite my average experiences, my non-vegan dining companions really enjoyed their meals.

Vegie Bar
380 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Mon-Thurs – 11am – 10pm
Fri – 11am – 10.30pm
Sat – 9am – 10.30pm
Sun – 9am – 10pm

Three One 2 One
424 Bridge Road, Richmond
Open every day 8am – 4pm

Work lunches: Fatto a Mano and Storm in a Teacup

Working just off of Smith st, I tend to be spoiled for choice when it comes to buying lunch. While most days I take my own lunch, it’s easy to forget it when there’s so many good options about. Fatto a Mano is a favourite among many at my work (and everywhere else if you judge by the line going out the door most days at lunch time) for their delicious organic baked goods. For some reason I always crave something from Fatto on Mondays, the only day in the working week that they AREN’T open. What is up with that?!

The following pictures are from a range of different visits to Fatto over the past 6 or so months (although most definitely not all of the visits that have taken place, wink wink).

fatto1The spelt pizzas are a favourite as they are a quick and easy option, and very reasonably priced at around $4. There is always a variety of vegan pizzas to choose from, looking beautiful with their symmetrical toppings.

fatto3From the pizza slices I’ve tried, I prefer the ones with tomato or capsicum, or as many veggies as possible. The potato and olive one shown here was okay, but a little bland.

fatto2This one wins the award for best variety, with a combo of pumpkin, zucchini, capsicum and potato. These are a great quick lunch to eat on the go, but I find it best if they are slightly warmed as the base can be quite chewy.

SAMSUNGThis is one of the vegan, gluten-free pies. When I tried this one, I found it hard to believe it was vegan as the top had this real cheesiness to it. Upon further inspection, I discovered what I think might be grated potato? Delicious!

fatto5Fatto a Mano have other savoury vegan options, as well as a range of vegan sweets. It tends to be different from day to day (and depending on how early you make it in). Above is some kind of peanut butter caramel ball, it’s kind of like a rice krispie treat with a light rice bubble filling. At various times they have also had variations of crostata (fruit pie) – I can confirm the deliciousness of a few versions of these, giant choc chip cookies, and cherry coconut balls in a similar style to the one above.

On a more recent note, I popped into Storm in a Teacup, a cute little tea shop and cafe on Smith st for the first time the other week after remembering hearing that they had vegan toasties on offer. I walk past the shopfront every single day, but had not yet been in. The day I ventured in, there were no toasties in clear sight, however I was met with this wonderful veganised green machine salad.

stormPacked with rocket, spinach, sprouted chickpeas and green lentils, zucchini, fennel seeds, tuscan kale, sunflower seeds and pomegranate, with a big dollop of Botanical Cuisine nut cheese (lemon and dill from memory). Seriously delicious, satisfying and kept me going all arvo. Unfortunately I did not have time to sit and enjoy their main pull – teas, but now I’ve tested the waters I will have to arrange a tea date to follow up.

Fatto a Mano Organic Bakery
228 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
Tues – Sat – 6am – 6pm

Storm in a Teacup
48A Smith St, Collingwood
Mon – CLOSED
Tues – Sun – 10am – 6pm

Brother Burger and the Marvellous Brew

Woah, hey! I have been slowly going through the annual motions of new-year cleaning, decluttering and organising, enjoying starting afresh. I spent today cleaning, clearing, packing away physical things, and I this evening I have moved on to the dreaded computer clean up. My usual attitude is one of ‘if I just don’t look at it, I won’t know how bad it is, and therefore it is fine”, but enough is enough. It’s time to back up, clear up and speed up the old lappytop.

In doing this, I have discovered more photos of places visited that I have NOT shared with y’all than I ever realised. As a result, I’m going to try and bang out some short sharp posts, clear this clutter and move on with my life. Stop weighing me down, maaaaan.

This piccy is from December – the bear and I had been running errands and getting shiz done when we started getting peckish. We were just across the road from Brother Burger and the Marvellous Brew – the name is a bit of a mouthful, but I kind of like the fairy-tale feel of it. It is what it sounds like – a burger bar – with a fair choice of burgers (including two vegetarian options), as well as a few sandwiches and salads. One of the burgers is listed as vegan, and there is also a menu of mix and match-ers that you can customise your own burger with. The drink list has plenty, from shakes to teas to cocktails and wines, and there is apparently a whole separate menu for beers. We bypassed the drinks and went straight to burgerville. I went the easy option and chose the vegan burger – a mung bean sprout and kidney bean pattie, lettuce, asian slaw, pickled onions and chili jam. Bear went with the magic mushie (not vegan), and we ordered some french fries (there are also fat chips and onion rings on offer). After taking the order, the friendly girl came back and advised that the bun on the vegan burger is not in fact vegan, but can be exchanged for the GF bun, which is. Strange that the vegan bun is not the standard on the vegan burger, but anyway…I guess it’s a good excuse to make an extra $3 on the bun.

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I was pleasantly surprised by the bun – I didn’t even notice the gluten-freeness of it! The pattie was solid and filling, with distinguishable veggies and bits in it – yaaaay (down with mush!) and it was overall decent. Unfortunately, the burger was a little dry and there wasn’t a huge flavour punch, something that a heavier serve of pickled onions and chili jam might have remedied – I am a condiment fanatic though. Regardless, it filled the hole alongside the salty french fries. Bear raved about his burger, which you can just catch in the background, the dollop of cheese and juicy mushroom really hit the spot for him.

Brother Burger and the Marvellous Brew
Side of 413 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Sun – Thurs – 12pm – 10pm
Fri – Sat – 12pm – 11pm

Yong Green Food

At the start of June, my Granny came over from Perth to visit. On one of the first days she was here, she and my mum came to meet me in Fitzroy and we went to Yong Green for lunch.

I was happy to find they were open when we arrived, as I have been having some poor luck with them this year – every time I make an effort to try and go, they end up being closed for holidays! Thankfully, not this time.

Yong Green Food have a wonderful menu which is based around healthy, sustainable and seasonal food and conscious eating. Pretty much the entire menu is vegan, or vegan on request, and they also cater for other dietary requirements such as organic, gluten-free and garlic/onion-free.

If the food’s not enough to draw you in, their sustainability initiatives are also admirable – Yong Green have taken steps to reduce their greenhouse emissions by purchasing their own GreenPower and acquiring carbon credits through abatement projects. They also donate 10% of their profits to support farmer-managed natural regeneration in East Africa.

yonggreen2We had a lot of trouble choosing what to eat – we couldn’t decide between entrees or desserts. Ultimately, we went with mains to ensure we had room for coffee and cake afterwards.

I went with the famous dragon bowl – brown rice, topped with various veggies (I think there was carrot, cucumber, sprouts and more) and sliced soy beef. There is also the option to have it with tofu.

yonggreen1Excuse the crappy photos and shadows plz.

The dragon bowl comes with a miso soup and chili sauce – the warm miso an especially nice touch for a winter’s day. The meal was delicious, filling and nourishing.

I didn’t actually take photos of my mum or granny’s meals – mum went with the macro dragon bowl, so it was very similar to mine. Granny went with a Japanese curry, which was absolutely scrumptious.

Then the cake!

yonggreen3We got a piece of raw cake each, and split them three ways so we could each have a taste. This was the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Not too dense and with a generous amount of raspberries and sauce, this was lovely.

yonggreen4I’d never had a raw pecan pie before, and our first meeting was successful. I would definitely eat you again pie!

yonggreen5The tiramisu was my favourite, and unfortunately the smallest (and most expensive) of the three. This was also my first raw tiramisu, and the addition of spiced rum was most welcome.

The cakes were very nice, though I’ve probably had better elsewhere, and given the price ($9 – $10.50/slice) I would probably prefer to spend the money on entrees next time as the savoury food on offer is more interesting.

Yong Green Food
421-423 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Mon – CLOSED
Tues – L – 12pm – 4pm, D – 5pm – 10pm
Wed – 5pm – 10pm
Thurs – Sat – L – 12pm – 4pm, D – 5pm – 10pm
Sun – L – 12pm – 4pm, D – 5pm – 9pm

The Bear Cafe, Fitzroy

Given the namesake of my blog, I can’t believe how long it took us to pop in for lunch at the Bear. It’s one of those things we had talked about doing for ages, but it kept slipping our minds – perhaps due to it being right up near the end of the Brunswick St shopping strip, towards Alexandra parade.

Anyhow, one morning we woke up and decided to fulfill our mission to visit the Bear. And boy are these bears glad they did.

The cafe has a warm homely feel to it – as soon as we sat down I felt like I was in somebody’s loungeroom, surrounded by books and mismatched furniture.

Everything on the menu is vegan, though there is also cow’s milk as an option for coffees.

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We grabbed a few coffees and took a quick peruse of the menu, which consisted of a variety of toasties as well as a bunch of different brekkie items and a soup of the day. I was immediately drawn to the roasted vegetable and pesto toastie, and added some soy cheese for an extra dollar or so.

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Such a great sandwich, and billy-bear had toastie envy as soon as it appeared. It was everything you could ask for in a toastie – crispy bread (extra points for the grill grooves!) gooey, and delicious filling, plus a lovely little fresh salad side. Simple food, done well. Total winner.

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Bear went for the double decker sammich – basically a big breakfast in a sandwich. This is a photo of the remaining half. This was good, but nowhere near as good as mine. I’m more about the filling than the bread, so I ain’t be needing an inner piece.

The Bear is cute and cosy, and I loved the details like the little fabric embroidered napkins, the op shop plates and the jam jar water glasses. The staff were charming, the food was cheap and it was an all-round lovely place to be. Oh, did I mention there are sweets too? Get on down to the Bear! I will definitely be returning soon.


The Bear Cafe
439 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Mon – Fri – 8.30am – 6pm
Sat – 9am – 6pm
Sun – 10am – 5pm

Eating right at Vegie Bar

This post goes back to a meal I had a couple of months ago now – where did the time go? Looking at the pictures I can remember exactly when these were from – the sun was shining and it was a couple of days before I started my new job (so we’re going back to mid-March here). The bear and I were wandering around Fitzroy picking up a few last things, and putting an order in for some reward-for-new-job boots at Vegan Wares.

At the time, I was in the middle of a detox and all the walking around was getting my tummy rumbling. I can start feeling hungry and hold onto that feeling for a while, but once I cross over my hunger threshold, I turn to grumpy VERY quickly. Luckily for us, we were just down from Vegie Bar and I knew I would be able to find something detox-suitable, while the bear could choose from a range of more substantial options.

ImageI ordered the colourful raw Living Stack, which consisted of layers of zucchini, carrot and tomato on top of a marinated mushroom, with a tomato beetroot puree. It had a fancy dehydrated slice of tomato on top, as well as some pretty micro-greens. I’m sure there were other things involved in the stack, but I can’t remember this far on. It was served with a great big green salad on the side, which was topped with some long cheesy kale chips. This was just what I needed – lots of vibrant and fresh ingredients. I loved the bold flavour of the puree in the stack, but I have to admit the marinated mushroom was a bit too much for me – I had to pass some of it on to the bear. I’m still working on pushing the boundaries of my mushroom eating. I have another threshold – the raw mushroom threshold, which I definitely crossed on this day. It’s one of those things that I need to keep working on.

ImageThe bear enjoyed a satay tofu wrap, which despite its anemic appearance in comparison to my colourful meal, packed a lot of flavour and he seemed satisfied. I even took a sneaky bite, just to make sure everything was in order. Confirmation acquired.

Image

Bear also ordered a purifier juice – apple, carrot, celery and ginger, a combination that you can never really go wrong with. Despite declaring that I did not want a drink when we ordered, I thoroughly enjoyed drinking most of this one. Oops.

Another enjoyable meal at Vegie Bar, consistent with the last two visits I’ve made since being back in Melbourne. You can find the details of those trips here and here.


Vegie Bar

380 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Mon-Thurs – 11am – 10pm
Fri – 11am – 10.30pm
Sat – 9am – 10.30pm
Sun – 9am – 10pm

Berrissimo (for the last time)

Bummer to hear that Berrissimo has closed up shop.

And just when I started enjoying it!

Well, I sort of enjoyed it the first time but not as much as I had hoped I would. Yet Billy and I popped in last week to give it another go, this time opting to share a small one between us.

They had some different vegan flavours on offer this time – I think these were peach and strawberry, with those little delicious popping balls and some kind of truffle-y thing. And gosh darnit, they were delicious! Last time we couldn’t eat it all, this time we couldn’t get enough. So fruity, fresh and delicious.

Oh well, hopefully something wonderful will take its place.

Berrissimo CLOSED
2/360 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Mon-Thurs – 1pm-9.30pm
Fri – 1pm-10.30pm
Sat – 12pm-10.30pm
Sun – 12pm-9.30pm